-The Hindu   The services will enable transfer, application procedures to be brought to one's door Last Christmas Eve, 35 people in a remote village of Jharkhand received a unique present. They became the first Indians to access their Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme bank accounts on their doorstep, having had their identities authenticated through their Aadhaar numbers. They are among the earliest beneficiaries of the next phase of the ambitious —...

Observed changes in rainfall patterns and increased temperatures, particularly in the North-Eastern region, are the major projections on which Indian agriculture scientists are pegging their “mitigation and adaptation” plans in the farm sector in the absence of definitive long-term and area-specific data on climate change. Acknowledging that in India the “climate system is extremely complex and poorly understood in terms of extent, timing and impact”, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)...

-IANS The central government cancelled the Antrix Corporation-Devas Multimedia deal for reasons of National Security and not for purported loss of revenue in sale of spectrum, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V. Narayanasamy has said. He also said the government was not discriminating between space scientists and Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officials and, based on their culpability, punitive action would be taken against the latter too. "We did not cancel...

The 2012-13 Budget may not have to provide as big a jump in the food subsidy bill as expected earlier. This is because of a series of measures initiated by the government to cut wastage and improve efficiency, food minister KV Thomas has said. The measures that would bring down the need for funds include the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and the setting up of modern grain storage facilities, which...

The battle to provide food security took an interesting turn after the apex court vested itself with a supervisory role in the ongoing computerization of the public distribution system (PDS), currently behind schedule. Accordingly, it directed the topmost bureaucrat in the food ministry—food secretary Bhushan Chander Gupta—to not only monitor the PDS computerization, but also submit monthly updates to the Supreme Court. The court was hearing the long-standing public interest case on...